1972 Cards That Never Were, Cardinals Version...
 

It's been mentioned many times before how Topps really dropped the ball with regard to their player selections for the 1972 'In Action' cards, but it was the egregious lack of St. Louis Cardinals stars that really drove people crazy.

Although it is 44 years too late, I present my offerings of what Cards cards should have been in the set…

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As a life long Cardinals fan, I love them! I just wish the real 1972 "In Action" cards would have been that good.

Great examples Darren! Far better than " commons " in action. Pat Corrales comes to mind and unfortunately many others. .....

:). Bravo

Brock
 

Great cards, but couldn't you find a better centered make-believe Brock? :)

Nice, very nice.

I like how you got a photo of Brock from Shea Stadium, because all of the 1972 National League In Action cards were shot either in Shea Stadium or Candlestick Park.

I made sure I found a photo from Shea for at least one of these fellahs. Nice pickup!!!

Wow those are awesome! I wouldn't even mind those going migrating over to the 73 set as regular cards! :)

Ricky Y

Incredible! Thanks Darren. Lou was my favorite player growing up. And 1972 was my first year of buying packs of cards. Would have loved to pull that one!

Okay, this is a weird bump, but what the heck.

(I'm not sure, but I think perhaps this old thread might have gotten abridged during the recent site problems, but I digress.)

I stumbled across two cool pictures of Bob Gibson (the bunting in one probably points way back to the 1968 World Series, but it looks pretty majestic), so BOOM!! here are two more versions of 1972 cards that never were...

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[QUOTE=JollyElm;1999618]Okay, this is a weird bump, but what the heck.

(I'm not sure, but I think perhaps this old thread might have gotten abridged during the recent site problems, but I digress.)

I think you may be right. It seems like some of the original examples disappeared. I saved some other Cardinal IA examples and I don't see them here. Here are the others I saved.

Thanks for the assist, GHG!! I think with the two cards still showing in the OP, that covers all of the Cards cards I created.

Bravo, again

Glad you bumped...those are fricken sweet! Love the Lou Brock...

1972 Topps my favorite set. I still don’t know how no Cardinals or Orioles we’re included on the In Action cards. Maybe they didn’t like birds!

Nice...love it!

Ricky Y

Wow, didn't know they left off players from the AL Champions and Cardinals (90 wins in 1971). At least my Tigers got their manager and a back up catcher they acquired in Dec 1971.

They did a horrible job overall with the In Action cards.

Some big names of HoF locks / superstars were left out.
Frank Robinson
Bob Gibson
Lou Brock
Jim Palmer
Willie McCovey
Gaylord Perry
Jim Hunter 20 game winner
Fergie Jenkins 71 Cy Young winner
Steve Carlton 20 game winner
Brooks Robinson
Al Kaline
Joe Torre 71 MVP
Dick Allen
Mickey Lolich Lead lg in wins and 2nd in Cy Young voting

My other thread, which I can't seem to find at the moment, added 1972 in action cards of all the omitted HOF'ers (except a couple of managers) over time, plus traded versions of Willie Mays and Nolan Ryan. It was a cool undertaking.

How about a Brooks Robinson fielding in action card ? Love to see that. Scott

Go down the page about a dozen threads and look for "1972 Cards That Never Were: HOF Edition".

Those are flippin awesome! I am a Cardinals team set collector, and as embarrassing as it is to say..... I didnt even realize that their wasn't any Cardinals in the 1972 Topps In Action subset.

However, I do think Topps made up for it more than we think. Six of the in action cards form a Joe Torre puzzle on the back. I have an uncut version of the puzzle back.

Here is a picture.

https://i.postimg.cc/Nj9NB1n0/20200908-203906.jpg

That uncut puzzle of Torre is awesome Shane!

Yes it is, but I would love to see what the other side looks like!

I bet Randy knows exactly what the other side looks like. ;)

I would take a picture of the other side but I'm sitting on the couch right now and I'm too lazy to get up! I just got done playing basketball and I'm wore out! I'll try to remember to do that tomorrow.

If Topps would have produced the last Gibson card in your thread, it would rival the '76 Bench/'71 Munson for the greatest card of the '70s. That is an awesome card.

On a related note, I've started (slowly) collecting signed versions of the '72 IA cards. There are 72 total and so far I've knocked off 19 of 'em. It's actually a benefit in this chase that Topps left off so many of the stars. Several guys still sign TTM, but it's amazing how many of that group have either passed on or are not signing anymore. You gotta think, if players were 25-30 in 1972, that would make them in their mid-late 70s by now.

It's time to include the latest Cardinal HOF'er from the 1972 set...

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